chiang mai night market, wat phra that doi suthep, kuu kham temple, pra that khao, hmong children and our nuclear family.

adventures

freedom

upstairs in our house, there is a phrse pasted onto the siding that reads:

"the purpose of freedom, is to free someone else"

this phrase has been ringing in my head a lot recently. i've hit a certain kind of a "block" where i feel like i'm on the verge of jumping off the cliff to join the revolutionaries, go off the radar into the thickness of the jungle that does not exist on the map. because only there, can people make a diffrence.

i was out to a bar called thaime's with all the foreigner friends in town in a hope to have andy perform a song at an open mic. i had gone to the thaime's few times and enjoyed it. it has a log-cabin-like decor with lots of lights and has east-meets-west atmohphere. but my being there this time made me hate this place and resent my own presence in the bar among westerners with western thoughts and premature understanding of freedom that allows them to forget the fact that some burmese poeple who crossed the border illegally just few blocks up the road are hiding away in the darkenss of the night, hoping to be spared of being caught by the patrol police while looking for something to eat. with an australian man belting out mrs. robinson, and a drunk french dude with a burmese tattoo proclaiming that tonight is a solistice and that french people party all night for it, i could not help but to think about what eh moo paw and eh na moo and other burmese friends and their genuine longing to be able to go shopping and just hang out in town without fearing that the cops will catch them or having to pay off the cops once they are caught. they are just like us in their mid-twenties just wanting to do a mid-twenties thing. and they can't. but we - highly educated, blinded by the humanitarian ideals, dressed in expensive clothes probably made by burmese factory workers, laughing about nothing and pounding down beer - were completely detached from these truths that we are supposedly helping. at that momment, all i wanted to do was to go home, grab andy's guitar, bike over to the clinic and play music among people who are and will be confined in this little space, just content for the fact that they are not constantly being raided, or that their children's fevers are going down. people of our age who had an opportunity to receive education up to 10th grade are acting as teachers/guardians/parents to orphans, feeding them, bathing them, comfort them if they are sad, never knowing what it's like to be among friends sitting around playing music and drinking away the night in a simple bliss of freedom. how can i not feel guilty? how can i not wish myself to be able to share this with them? may be i felt it more because i have their faces and their skin. i know that many wonder "who is she among white faces?" and i know it comes with a certain bitterness. the bar was just so stuffed up with good-hearted western values that blatantly ignored the needs of the people that we are meant to serve. i've heard many of these people say "i can't believe they do this," "i can't believe they don't do this" "we need to get them technology" "they would love to be resettled in the US" and i keep my distance from them.

i am not a hard-a**. i love having fun, hanging out at the bar or otherwise, and i am all for doing things i enjoy to keep myself sane so that i can continue the work. i just realized, that my work is not to bring my values to them, or to encourage refugee resettlement abroad. i want to lend my hands to get them what they want - to live comfortably with freedom, in a place where they belong - viallges in the hills of beautiful burma. and the fact is, we usually forget that in our naturally western drive for "humanitarian" deeds. we all do it to satisfy ourselves to a certain degree, but i desire to let myself be dissolved in the people's values and truly hear their voices as if the words are spoken in my own tongue. the cacophony of comfort from the fellow westerners at the bar somehow made their calls apparent in my ears. i hope you realize i'm not trying to be judgemental of others. it is mostly a criticism of myself, and my weakness to not be able to leap over to the other side. and i am completely over generalizing everyone that's here. i am sure there are some who have made the similar revalations and doing the right thing.

i think annie and i are going to try to plan a hang-out time with our burmese friends at one of our schools. hope it will be realized.

近況

久しぶりに書き込みします。

まずは近況から・・・。

仕事の方は着々と進み、ドクターシンシアから頼まれていた提案書の返事が今日きました。アメリカでよく使われる旅行ガイドブックの会社、『ロンリー・プラレネット』からの募金の成立です。返事がくるのに時間がかかったけど、どうやっらお金は送ってくれるようです。クリニックの小児/幼児科病棟3年報告書の作成にはカルテからデータを計算しなければいけないのでまだまだ時間がかかれりそうです。

週末は、バスに乗ってタイの北部にあるチアンマイという街に遊びにいきました。チアンマイは日本で言ったら京都のような所で、歴史的なお寺や建物、仏像や遺跡が豊富に残っているとこです。チアンマイは750年前にラナ州の主都として栄えた川沿いの街で、金、銀や鉄等の工芸でも有名です。その為、観光客も多く、多彩なレストランやバーが並び、日曜日の夜には旧主都の名残のお堀と壁際で大規模なお祭りの様なバザーがあり、おみやげショッピングには欠かせない所でもあります。それからチアンマイは『ゴールデン・トライアングル』と呼ばれる、タイ、ビルマ、そしてラオスの国境が交じ合う地点に近く、山の奥で生活している民族の人達(主にモン族)も沢山住んでいる所でもあります。『ゴールデン・トライアングル』は以前三国が政治的に対立していた頃に山の奥地に住む民族の人々を巻き込んでの戦争や惨殺、虐待があった地点でもあり世界的に悪名も高く、現在では売春の為にエイズ感染率が非常に高いということで公衆衛生や医学的な注目を浴びています。

さてさて、ここで少しメーソットの食生活についてお話します♪

こちらで一番思うのが、『お米社会の国の食べ物は美味しい！』ということです。クリニックのすぐ隣にも田んぼがいくつかあり、この間出勤した際には田植えをしていました。こちらでは麺類もお米で出来ているのが多く、こしがあってとにかく美味しいです。それから魚もよくつかわれていて、屋台ではよく日本的な、串に刺さってある魚の刷り身だんごやかまぼこを火鉢で焼いて売っています。鳥肉や豚肉の炒めものも色々あり、味も激辛から甘いものまであります。元々さほど辛い物好きではありませんでしたが、今ではけっこう好んで食べるようになりました(でも辛いものはものすごく辛い！辛いというよりか口の中が痛いです！)。ビルマの食べ物にはみょうがやしょうがも使われていて口当りがよく、食べやすいです。でも、市場に行くと蛙やゴキブリも売っているんですねぇ・・・。 かえるはともかく、ゴキブリはやっぱり避けたいっ！まぁ、イナゴの佃煮は食べたことがあるから同じ様な物だと思えば大丈夫・・・！?！?

そんな所です。ご報告までに。☆★☆★

poolside.

yumi may have already written about this....but we found the mae sot central hotel!! sunday afternoon, under the scorching sun, we set out on our bikes and found it, like 20 minutes from the downtown area, somewhere off the main highway. it was so nice. there was a bamboo bar AND a massage hut. andy said it was pretty obvious that we were from "the other side of town," showing up with our backpacks and me, looking like complete trash, swimming in my clothes. but its a feeling i've grown quite comfortable with - we've decided that most of the time i look like one of the lost boys from peter pan. but it didn't matter. we sat by the pool in those nice lounge chairs, reading our books and getting sunburned. caroline from canada came to meet us, we ate at the hotel restaurant. and on the way home we stopped for popsicles. it was the greatest day.
tonight i think we're going to rent a dvd...we try to only do it once a week cause its so expensive. and we've developed a taste for only those movies that are completely, utterly detached from reality. cartoons of any kind. star wars. a series of unfortunate events. the chronicles of narnia. we love it :)
alright, i guess that's its for now.
hope everyone is doing well, miss you all xoxoxox
annie and yumi

beautifuls.

Students participated in The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child this year, and awarded Dr. Cynthia

Older students in their outdoor classroom

Future pop-stars!?

Girls weaving at their dormitory

Friends

Burmese people wear Tana-ka, a ground tree product mixed with water as sunscreen and a make-up

Boys peeking from the bed of the principal's truck serving as a "school bus"

End of the school day

Girls at a School eating Burmese noodle bowl at the convocation of the new academic year

ex pats, dogs in heat, fish balls, and unidentifiable noise on the tin roof

so some updates here. just so that everyone is aware, the previous two posts have been written in japanese, so if you don't have japanese language kit installed onto your computer you probably got a jarble or boxes instead of letters... thanks for my friend who kindly notified us about it. ;)

1) the food here is AWESOME. despite our original intent to be careful of what we eat to avoid GI problems, yumi has broken all the rules and have been drinking water with ice, frequenting "fish balls" on a stick from a street vendor, and adding spices in everything she eats. luckily, no serious stomach problems (knock-on-wood...) yet... more on fish balls: there are two kinds you can get - ones that are very much reminiscent of japanese "kamaboko" which are my favorite, and the others that are like japanese "surimi dango" which are little more fishy and i like less. regardless, you can get them with this sweet-and-sour sauce sort of like the sauce "drunken fish" (from a Thai restaurant in providence) come in, which is scrumptous.

2) the town of mae sot is an interesting place. we are thousands of miles away and yet it is a hub of americans. including "greg" from CSI who is visiting different migrant/refugee communities with an American organization that supports Burmese freedom. he left his head-shot picture with his autograph and a message: "be cool, stay in school" at one of the schools with which we work closely. among the young academic-activist-hippie-yuppie Americans are these ex-pats who probably goes off the map and becomes unreacheable by any mode of communication frequently. they are easily spotted because of their scruffy aloha-type-shirt and the natural ability to blend in the crowd of short, dark-haired, Asian people.

3) and the streets are filled with stray dogs, mountain dogs, little dogs, big dogs, expensive dogs, tame dogs.... the list goes on. they just rule the streets and things have been especially bad lately. a lot of them have been chasing each other, fighting, and barking ceaselessly. today, we saw one mount another one and made us realize that all this fuss has been because they were in heat!

4) we have a fouth roommate named lola, a giant gecko with red patterns (about a size of my foot or longer) who likes to come out at night and scare us. for the longest time, we thought she was stuck in the kitchen and felt some sympathy, but yumi believes that she actually enjoys living here because there are lots of other little geckos which i'm convinced that lola likes to chomp on. the little geckos are super adorable. they chase bugs on the ceiling or on the wall, and lift their heads and seach their peripherals. very cute. UNTIL today one of them caught a good sized beetle and it was obviously too big for this little guy's jaw. so he decides to bang the poor bug on the ceiling while it's caught in the mouth to kill it so that it won't wiggle so much. only, he used his force too much - he ended up throwing the bug onto yumi's head.

5) and the unidentifiable noise outside on our tin overhang by the front door... it is creepy. it sounds like an animal's claw, but not all of us agree. yumi thinks it's a cat or a monkey. andy thinks it's a dog. annie thinks it's a dead body.... whatever it is, it always happens at night, passed 9pm, without any signs. just a series of big bangs and thumps.

regardless, our lives in mae sot continues...

又々学校へ

今日もまた学校に行き、子供達の写真を撮ったり話を聞いたりした後、スタッフの報告書を書く手伝いをしました。

とにかく難民の人達の英語の上手なのにはびっくりしました。特にクリニックの看護師や学校の先生達はまれに高校にも行っていないのに英語で会話をしたり文章を書いたりと、とても流暢です。ビルマ解放のためには国際的な協力が必要だということで皆、一所懸命学んでいるということです。結局、日本の子供達は中
学校から高校まで英語を勉強してもそういった意気込みがないから話せないのかもしれませんね。

そんな勤勉な人々なのにもかかわらず、子供達の行く学校には何もありません。中には平均して生徒一人につき鉛筆一本しかないという学校もあり、私達が学校についた時、『文房具のサンプルを届けにきてくれたのかと思った』と先生が言って笑っていました。メーソットのタイ人の学校は何でもあるし、街の文房具屋さんでも豊富にあるのに・・・とてもかわいそうです。だから今日アニーと二人で故郷の母校や文房具屋に手紙を書いて学校に文房具や洋服を送ってもらおうと心にきめました。

さっそく手紙を書いてま-す♪

もし学校に直接何か送りたいという方は私の方までメール(ruggerkio@hotmail.com)をお送りください。

最後に、ビルマ救援に関わっている日本人ジャーナリストのホームページを見つけたので見てみてください。

日本語でこんにちは！

やっと日本語で入力できるようになりました。
使いなれないプログラムなので少しずつ書いていきます。

まずは勤務先のメータオ・クリニックについてご紹介します。
英語を読める方は是非クリニックのホームページへ行ってみてください。

メータオ・クリニックはタイの西側、ビルマとの国境沿いにあるメーソットという街にあります。(注:ビルマは現在ミャンマーと呼ばれていますが、民主化を望むビルマの人々、主にカレン族やモン族の難民達は祖国を現在にわたって『ビルマ』と読んでいます。)クリニックは1988年に女医、シンシア・マウン博士によって設立されました。ドクターシンシアご本人もビルマ民主化運動に参加されていたビルマ人で、急激に悪化した軍事政権による無差別虐待を逃れるためにタイへ移民。そして彼女のように移民してきた人々や、地雷によって負傷したのにもかかわらず治療を受けることができない民族の人々を救う為にクリニックを設立しました。それ以来、ドクターシンシアとスタッフの努力、そして世界各国からの支援を受けながらクリニックは成長し、今では年間10万人を越えるほどの患者をかかえる病院になりました。現在クリニックでは外来だけではなく、入院施設や義手/義足の手配、それから予防接種の配給や産後ケアまで配慮できる施設になっています。その上、メータオ・クリニックは遠くビルマの奥地から治療を受ける為にくる患者が短期滞在できる下宿もあり、孤児や難民キャンプで生活する子供達の学校の設立そして支援もしています。

私は現在クリニックのボランティアとしてNGOから資金を集めるための年間報告書や提案書の作成を行なっています。昨日は提案書に関わっている難民学校に行き、スタッフや子供達のインタビューを行い、どれだけ自分や他の平和な先進諸国に住む人達が恵まれて平凡な毎日を送っているか痛感しました。それなのにアメリカも日本も国連もASEANもビルマ救援をなぜもっとしないのだろうか。湾岸戦争から始まって中東部国々が主に話題になっているからだろうか?話によれば北朝鮮のキム・ジョンイルが先日ビルマを訪問し、もともと結んでいた友好関係をさらに深める話を進めたというのに・・・。

それではまた時間のある次第、報告しますね。☆ 愛川有美

もし日本語でもっとビルマについて読みたい方は[BurmaInfo: ビルマ情報ネットワーク]日本ビルマ救援センターのホームページをご覧下さい。

assignments assignments...

so the first couple of days were slow, just kind of observing everything and getting to know the facility and the staff. even then, we have encountered many memorable momments like witnessing a malnourished boy (skinny, with blotches of bleached hair) throw up a live worm and being scolded by a mother for it, and a neonate a size of a kitten...

we did, however, tag along to dr. cynthia and eth war one day to check up on all the schools for burmese refugee children that mae tao clinic helps to run. some schools are attached to the boarding houses (well, more like a shack, and in some cases, a building is used as a class room during the day and sleeping corridor by night), because many of their parents are either deceased, still trapped in burma, or at the refugee camps where resources are scarce and schools are not well run. it was really interesting to see though, that about half of these schools had at least one computer. the juxtaposition of the leaf-made roofs and the fairly new desktop computers was quite amusing. we also picked up a girl (and her devoted teacher) who was suffering from high fever due to malaria (as we found out later).

finally, after three days of sitting around and trying to establish our existence and our commitment to the clinic, we have finally seemed to gain enough trust and friendship to actually take on multiple projects that could be helpful to the clinic staff and dr. cynthia. it started off with dr. cynthia's request to write up a three year report for a grant for children's health program that was expired in march, followed by the request from the medic in charge of data collection (leo) and analysis to translate each department based burmese exit interviews and general quality assurance surveys into english (obviously with a help from a medic "moon star" who speaks very good english). the surveys are very basic, but impressive in terms of their contents and subjects. we will continue to translate all the surveys they currently use, and we may have to create a new survey and conduct it to assess the maternal child health/disease recognition in the pediatric department in the near future.

AND today, we got new assignments from dr. cynthia to write a proposal in response to funding offers from australia and thai independent organizations specidically to help refugee children's education. we were then taken around to interview children, school teachers, and dorm parents by a teacher who is a representative of the clinic's refugee children education department called Children Development Centre (CDC). the stories they told us were heart wrenching, and we were constantly holding back tears. these stories will follow soon...

in the meantime, please visit:

Karen Women's Organization (in charge of organizing border crossing for women, children and their families, orphanage at the refugee camps, and social support for internally displaced women in burma)

The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (support organization that highlights and recognizes children and their allies in harships through publications, awards, and funds - dr. cynthia won an award recently for her effort to help children)

a note for travellers to mae sot

so the reluctance to write into the blog has nothing to do with a shock or our health or access to the internet. we've just been swamped (all of a sudden) with new assignments that dr. cynthia has trustingly given us, and also yumi has been trying to figure out the language setting and photo setting on the laptop that she bought. we will tell you more about our assignments and strife we have encountered concerning internally displaced people of Burma, but first, we just have to note some travel precautions, because we think it will be helpful to anyone who plans to come to mae sot, since it is not clearly stated ANYWHERE.

first, be aware that the direct bus from bangkok (leaves from mo chit northern bus terminal, closer to the new airport) to mae sot (also spelled "mae sod" occasionally) only runs in the evenings, and the schedule is limited. the better way is to catch a "wee ai pee (VIP)" bus bound for chiang mai that stops at tak. luckily our bangkok metered taxi driver was nice enough to find the ticket counter for such bus, but we believe, it's at the window #20. to our knowledge, the bus to chiang mai (thru tak) runs pretty frequently, throughout the week. the travelling on the bus comes with a roadside lunch stop which yumi ate (but there was a dead bug in it...) and felt fine, as well as bready snack and few cups of soda. the ride is about 6 hours, and it is pretty comfortable. once you're dropped off at the bus stop at tak (yes, be aware it is not a big terminal) you can be adventurous and just haul your bags and cross the multi-lane intersection onto the road diagnal to the bus stop, or if you are like us, you can take a tuk tuk (usually some waiting at the bus stop, but you can always have the ticket counter attendant get you one) to the "mimivan" termial. from there, you can take the orange, white and blue tiny minivan all the way to mae sot for 50baht (we believe). they drive pretty darn fast through the misty jungly highway, but yumi enjoyed it while annie was slightly traumatized. it took us about 1.5 hours, but make sure to call your host either in bangkok or tak, so that he/she can come pick you up at the minivan dropoff or have an address ready in thai so that the driver can bring you to where you're supposed to be (which we failed to do and suffered the consequence...). just a note - we ended up being dropped off at the clinic, but i would minimize the mention of the clinic around police and other government officials, because of the illegal refugee status among many that live, work, and are treated at the clinic.

we hope this is helpful to some of you prospective volunteers because other foreign volunteers we talk to have all faced difficulties getting into mae sot.

oh, and the japanese version of the blog and the photos will hopefully be uploaded soon...